Al Rajhi Bank’s profit grew by 26% in 2025, supported by balanced loan growth, a shift toward SMEs and corporates, and expanding investment banking activity, as its “Harmonise the group” strategy concludes.

At the Shanghai International AI Finance Summit 2026, Wang Kaijing of SenseTime discussed how AI-driven models enable banks to integrate structured and unstructured data to improve risk management and operational efficiency. Chak Wong, managing director at JP Morgan, explained why many AI initiatives fail, stressing the need for strong leadership, organisational alignment and domain knowledge.

China’s Cross-Border Interconnection Payment Gateway (CPG) gives domestic and international payment institutions a single, standardised on-ramp for cross-border QR payments. Yang Wenhui, chief executive officer of TenPay Global (Singapore) discusses the gateway’s potential, why partnerships are essential and why common technical and compliance standards are needed before agentic payments can scale.

Discussions at The Asian Banker Shanghai International AI Finance Summit focused on how emerging AI agents are reshaping the economics of infrastructure, the boundaries of competition and the way customers access financial services.

As large language models move from generating answers to taking actions, financial institutions face a new risk profile. Permissions, reliability and data governance are now the three pressure points that matter most, as discussed during The Asian Banker Shanghai International AI Finance Summit.

Carbon pricing is gaining ground across Asia, with China operating the world's largest emissions-trading system and countries from Japan to Indonesia developing their own schemes. Whether these fragmented efforts can coalesce into a regional market remains an open question—but the economic and climate stakes, for Asia and the world, are enormous.

OCBC is reshaping the future of regional banking across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and Macau through Velocity and the OCBC Business App – built on a unified digital platform designed to operate consistently across markets. Structured around four pillars — Apply, Transact, Service and Engage — the platform integrates digital identity onboarding, embedded treasury connectivity, authenticated servicing and AI-driven product orchestration into a single regional architecture.

Top digital banks achieve profitability either through disciplined lending execution or by monetising customer ecosystems, not simply by scaling loan growth.

Bank of America’s Global Payments Solutions franchise in Asia Pacific is expanding through double-digit client acquisition, institutional mandates growth and targeted product investments. Beyond regional revenue contribution, the leadership team positioned performance within a globally integrated network model, where balance sheet growth, mandate wins, and client expansion provide further indicators of momentum. The growth strategy rests on network scale, trade and FX innovation, cross-border real-time payments capability and deepening coverage of financial institutions and private capital clients.

Singapore is a major financial centre, managing over $6 trillion in assets under management, hosting the regional headquarters of most global banks, and operating a trusted regulatory environment.

Following a year of falling interest benchmarks and shifting trade corridors, Tan Su Shan set out a view of banking resilience that rests less on credit expansion and more on customer focus, currency diversification and organisational adaptability.

For more than a decade the banking industry has focused on digital transformation. Mobile banking, cloud infrastructure and platform partnerships have reshaped how institutions deliver services. A new phase is now emerging. Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from experimentation into the operational core of banking.

As artificial intelligence shifts from experimentation to enterprise infrastructure, banks are redefining competitiveness not through algorithms alone but through governance, explainability and economic accountability. Institutions that succeed will be those able to embed machine-assisted decisioning into balance sheet discipline, cross-border execution and client trust.

JPMorgan Chase closed 2025 with $57 billion in net income and a 20% ROTCE, but the results point to a structural shift that will define the bank’s 2026 performance: rate tailwinds that buoyed net interest income are fading, and management is now looking at balance sheet growth, record wealth inflows and AI-driven efficiencies to support growth.

BNY's Global Payments & Trade business in Asia Pacific is scaling institutional infrastructure through embedded AI, integrated foreign exchange execution, virtual account structures and tokenised deposit development — positioning technology as an operational foundation rather than a product overlay.